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| Oct 22, 2009 3:02 am |
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re: Organization Tuesday: How to Create a Perfect Office (12 Tips) |
Jorge Azurin
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I hope it is all right to share with you some of the tips I have gathered from Barbara Hemphill (Author of "Taming the Paper Tiger at Work").
The Big Idea
Getting organized is not an easy task. Everyday, you are forced to deal with mountains of paper that contain both crucial information and useless garbage. This scenario is common to anyone who dares thrive in the workplace.
Without realizing it, you may have bred your very own paper tiger. Although paper can serve a great purpose, a huge amount of it can literally wreak havoc and harm productivity.
Barbara Hemphill, a well-known professional organizer, shares her expertise on how to effectively manage your files, take control of your time and produce effective results.
Getting Centered
Organize Your Thoughts
It is tempting to put off organizing things for another day. Unfortunately, constant procrastination often results in you realizing that your files have become unmanageable causing you to mismanage appointments and other work commitments.
“I don't have the time” is the most common alibi used to explain lack of organization. What you may not realize, however, is that a lot of time is wasted when you try to search for missing documents.
Remember that organization is a tool that will help you be more effective in the work you do. By being organized, you are giving yourself the opportunity to come up with the right materials at exactly the right time they are needed.
Let FAT Work for You
You have to stop thinking that you don't have time to organize. Remember that the process of organization only becomes more difficult in time because clutter accumulate. A task that may take you only an hour to do may take you weeks if you let everything pile up.
To make organization easier for you, use the FAT system:
1. File it.
2. Act on it, or
3. Toss it.
Whenever you receive information, ask yourself if it requires any action. If it required action, file the document and include it in your files that need urgent action. Otherwise, toss it in the wastebasket.
After an action has been done, ask yourself if the file will be important for future reference. If so, file it in your cabinet. Otherwise, toss it.
Getting Started
The Mechanics of Filing Paper
The simple task of filing paper involves mechanics. One of them involves the use of filing cabinets. Although everyone knows that filing cabinets exist, few have tried using them. Even fewer use them effectively.
Once you start filing, labeling your files is crucial. A filing cabinet can store tons of information and it would be too much trouble to rummage through all that paper just to get a single page of information.
An effective way of labeling your files is by using color-coded folders. You may also write along the sides of folders to ensure that you are aware of what the folder contains at a single glance.
Set Up Your File System
Pulling at every drawer of your cabinet and rifling through each folder to find the information you need is a tedious task. One way to resolve this is to devise your very own file system.
Create a file system similar to catalogues used in libraries. Remember that your system doesn't need to be a sophisticated one. You can even use index cards.
Label each cabinet and each folder. On the index cards, write the labels and what type of information they contain. Put together things according to their use and not according to their source.
Manage Your Contact Information
Files are not the only things you organize. You also have to manage the people you work with.
Remember that not all the files you need to complete a project will be available in your filing cabinet. Sometimes, you will be forced to ask for help from other people. Officemates and business partners are just some examples of individuals that can supply you information necessary to complete a task.
Nowadays, you can choose from a variety of technological equipment that can assist you in managing contact information. You can use laptop computers, personal digital assistants, or a simple telephone book.
Make the Most of Your Calendar
Not all information you receive are for filing or tossing. In fact, a great percentage requires action.
When you receive a document that requires your action, ask yourself first if you are the appropriate person to do the job. Do not burden yourself with commitments that you should not be handling.
If this is the case, delegate the task to the appropriate person or department. Not only does this save you time and energy, it will also give you a sense of ease that the assignment is being carried on correctly.
On the other hand, if you are the person responsible to do the task, it is important to know the deadline for that particular commitment.
Deadlines are best handled by calendars. You can choose from a wide variety of software designed for managing schedules. However, some people find it more comfortable to write down appointments and other commitments on paper.
Instead of jotting down notes on post-its or scratch papers, write down notes directly on your calendar. This way, you can be assured that you will remember them and find them on the day when they are supposed to be completed.
Eliminate Clutter with Your To-Do-List
A person is expected to do a lot of things in a single day. Unfortunately, it would be impossible to do all of these tasks at the same time.
To solve this problem, it is important to make a To-Do List. A list will prevent you from scattering your files all over your desk as you battle with your judgment on which one to act on first.
In your list, enumerate the things that need to be finished before the end of the day. Do not list them down randomly, however. You should decide which ones need to be accomplished at the soonest possible time, and which ones can wait until the end of shift. To do so, classify the commitments into four quadrants:
1. Urgent and Important.
2. Important but Not Urgent.
3. Urgent but Not Important.
4. Not Urgent and Not Important.
Realistically, some tasks will not be done on time — or not done at all. At the end of the day, go over this list and ask yourself what could have been the reason why. Ask yourself the following questions:
1. Am I the right person for this task?
2. Should I have allotted more time for this task?
3. Should I have done this task in a different way?
Remember, assessing your To-Dos will help you be more efficient the next time you have to do something again.
Organize Your Computer
In an office where a computer is shared by two or more people, it is best to create your own electronic folder where you can store all of your files. This saves you time and energy when you need to retrieve them. Furthermore, this prevents accidental deletion of your files when another colleague takes over.
If you have a separate computer, remember that the same rules apply. Clean out computer files that are no longer needed periodically. This gives you more space to work and save on.
In an office environment, most computers are networked. If this is the case, it is important to know where to save your files. Remember, if you save an important document on a drive that has been scheduled to be reformatted by the I.T. department, your important files may be deleted by mistake.
Another way to safeguard your files is to create back-ups. By doing so, you can continue working and meet deadlines even if your computer crashes. You can use floppy disks, CDs, and external hard drives to back-up your files. Remember to label them.
Maintain Your Filing System
More often than not, people discontinue practicing what they have started at a certain point. Do not fall into this trap by keeping in mind that the information that needs to be filed is continuously being received everyday.
Remember, you have to clean your files whenever you can or one day you will find your office back to the same bad shape it was when you first started organizing and filing.
Organizing in Special Situations
When You Work From Home
For convenience and cost-effectiveness, you may consider setting up an office at your home. Doing so does not lessen the quality of work you deliver provided that you equip your office with the necessary tools.
Make sure you have a trusty computer and the necessary software installed to conduct your business. If you can afford it, a copy machine is another must-have tool.
To open ports of communication, a fax machine and telephones are needed. Even though technology does allow you to have one telephone number for voice, fax and internet services, it is still advisable to have at least 2 phone lines — one for personal and another for business.
Cordless phones allow you to move and perform multiple tasks. Be sure to subscribe to important services through your telephone company such as call waiting, caller ID and call forwarding.
Sometimes hiring an assistant is necessary. You may have deliberately overlooked doing so for fear of paying a large compensation. To go around this, consider hiring part time help when your load gets too heavy. On days when the work is manageable, you can discontinue the services of part time help.
When You Work on the Road
If your job calls for a lot of traveling, a cellular phone is a must. A voice mail subscription is necessary to make sure you can still get your messages when you are unable to answer all calls.
So you can continue working on the road, bring your laptop computer along with you. That way there is no need for you to make hard copy of files stored in your office computer.
A lot of establishments, including hotels, rent out Internet services using wireless routers. If you have your laptop with you, you can go ahead and continue communicating using the Internet without the need for cables.
A portable recorder may also be a big help.
When You Attend a Convention
Before you set out and attend a convention, make sure you have read all pertinent materials so it will be easy for you to outline what your objectives are. Prepare and pack the necessary files you have to bring along.
Once you have arrived at your hotel room, create a mini-office so you can keep track of the papers you will gather from the convention everyday. Know which ones need to be filed and which ones require immediate action.
When the convention is over, organize these papers and ship them back home to avoid loss of documents while you travel. If you intend to write thank-you cards, your calendar is a good tool so you don't forget and miss out on people you have enlisted.
When Your Space is Shared or Downsized
A recent occurrence in the corporate world today is workstation-sharing. This maximizes space and eliminates costs without sacrificing quality of work and productivity. Although this is not an opinion shared by many employees, most companies see this as an efficient and cost-saving arrangement.
If you have to deal with a situation like this, remember that you need to show your courtesy to the other user. Do not share drawers to avoid loss or mismanagement of files.
Here are other tips you can use to help you:
1. Consider keeping some office supplies exclusive.
2. For supplies you can't use exclusively, make a deal with the alternate user to replenish cleaned-out supplies.
3. To keep track of whose turn it is, put it in writing.
4. At the end of the day, don't leave with your desk all cluttered.
Reorganizing the Organization
At the end of each year, it is necessary to make an evaluation of how the previous year went. An overall assessment on how the current filing and organizing system has worked is crucial. Use the assessment to decide whether the system needs to be maintained or modified.
It is also of utmost important that an annual Clean-Out Day must be set. Not only is it always refreshing to start the year clean and neat, it is important that other people understand the importance of organization. Soon, the people around you will also understand how important it is to have a big room in the office to continuously accommodate incoming files that have to be filed, acted upon or tossed.
When cleaning out files, you must have retention guidelines. Even though you have to do this annually, it does not follow that all stored files will have to go on a yearly basis. You must decide among yourselves which of the files are no longer needed by the company and therefore must go. To do it more effectively, you can have the person who originally received the file decide if it should be retained or not. Soon everybody will be doing this on their own thus saving time and a lot of energy.
Jorge "Jojy" Azurin
BusinessSummaries.com
(877) 358-4208
mail@bizsum.comPrivate Reply to Jorge Azurin (new win) |
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